Midnight for Charlie Bone: The Children of the Red King #1

Charlie Bone is the protagonist of Midnight for Charlie Bone and the Children of the Red King series. At the start of the book, he is a seemingly ordinary 10-year-old boy with “hair like a hedge” (2). He lives with his mother, Amy Jones; his maternal grandmother, Maisie; his paternal grandmother, Grandma Bone; and her much younger and reclusive brother, Paton. As far as Charlie is aware, his father, Lyell, died when he was two years old, although it is later revealed not to be the case. Charlie’s ordinariness is a constant sticking point for Grandma Bone as she is part of the Yewbeam family. They are descendants of the magical Red King, and many members of the family are “endowed” or inheritors of aspects of their ancestor’s power. The plot starts when Charlie discovers he is one of the endowed. Later books further flesh out the extent of his abilities, but in the first novel, it only manifests in two ways. The primary use is to hear the conversations people in photographs had when the image was taken. This is how he discovers his endowment, as he hears Dr.